Rise of the town hall junketeers
Revealed, how top council bosses on six-f igure salaries lap up freebie treats, trips and trinkets
SOME of Scotland’s highest-paid local authority bosses have accepted gifts and luxury trips from companies seeking to do business with their councils.
Officials have been wined and dined by US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump, while others have accepted hospitality at an oil industry jamboree in Texas.
East Ayrshire Council’s top official Fiona Lees accepted a gift of fine china plates from Prince Charles and Camilla, while Dumfries and Galloway chief executive Gavin Stevenson can look forward to a brace of pheasant each Christmas from the Duke of Buccleuch’s estate.
Last night, the Conservative opposition at Holyrood said that disclosure over the level of entertainment enjoyed by public officials ‘would not sit easy with council tax payers’.
To comply with the 2010 Bribery Act, each of Scotland’s 32 councils must compile a register of gifts and hospitality accepted by senior members of staff.
Collectively, council bosses were responsible for spending £15 billion of public money in the year to March 2015 and are paid salaries of up to £160,000.
Under Freedom of Information legislation, we asked each authority to provide its register for the past five years. The City of Edinburgh Council’s list was by far the longest, running to 80 pages of trinkets, trips and tickets to top sporting events.
As £158,000 chief executive of the council, Sue Bruce received silk scarves, bottles of champagne and a luxury meal at one of Germany’s finest restaurants, the Burg Schwarzenstein overlooking the Rhine Valley. Her equivalent at Aberdeenshire Council, Colin Mackenzie, was treated to a range of hospitality by big business, notably Donald Trump and the oil industry.
In October 2012, his declaration shows he attended ‘an informal dinner at Trump Golf House’ at the invitation of Donald Trump. No value was given.
In June 2014, just before he announced his retiral, Mr Mackenzie was taken to Wimbledon by oil giant BP, while the council’s planning services manager Bruce Stewart was treated to a golf outing at Royal Aberdeen Golf Course by Aberdeen Asset Management.
Glasgow’s Annemarie O’Donnell, believed to be Scotland’s highestpaid council official on £160,000, was treated to a luxury overnighter at the five-star Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire in the summer of 2014. Her declaration said she attended the ‘client retreat’ of law firm Pinsent Masons (value unknown) from August 28-29.
Two Aberdeenshire Council officials were guests at a range of events at the oil industry’s Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, in May last year. Their hosts were Hilton Hotels and the University of Aberdeen. At Aberdeen Council, enterprise chief Gordon
McIntosh declared dinner at Le Pistou Restaurant, Cannes and hospitality at the Cote d’Azur’s Royale Beach Bar.
Last week Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘While there’s no suggestion of money changing hands here, and these individuals are technically doing nothing wrong, these revelations won’t sit easy with council tax payers. At a time when local authorities need to be tightening their belts and finding efficiencies, it doesn’t look good for senior officials to be indulging to quite this extent. All officials should remember who pays their wages, and think twice before accepting these lavish offers.’
Building firm Morrison Construction entertained a number of employees at Highland Council and Aberdeenshire Council while it was engaged on dozens of construction projects. Asked what Morrison received in return, a spokesman for the company said: ‘We expect nothing more than building normal working relationships with all stakeholders.’